Friday, June 26, 2009

Thinking Outside The Box

One thing that needs to be avoided like the plague is the “herd” mentality. The herd mentality will get you into trouble every time. People become comfortable and lazy with the status quo and the next thing you know you are caught completely off guard. Breaking free from the bonds of the herd mentality is difficult, heck we are all creatures of habit in some form or another and that, in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing.

People become oblivious to what is going on around them and that is when it will burn you; a spouse asks for a divorce, a child is on drugs, the government chisels away at your freedoms, a natural disaster catches you unprepared. These are things that don’t “just happen”; they are like a heart attack, the result is sudden and violent but the cause was years of neglect and bad habits. What everyone who reads this needs to do and needs to do right away is a self evaluation and assessment of their current state. Think of this as a life audit if you will, a simple open the hood and check the dip stick to make sure there is actually oil in the damn thing type deal. Ask yourself the hard questions like:
"Am I happy with my life?"
"Do I get taken advantage of by friends, family and strangers?"
"I am I doing all I can for my family and myself to protect us in the event of the collapse of western civilization?"

Besides being oblivious to what is going on around you, thinking outside of the box is something that should be strived for. God I know that sounds cliché, but think for a moment about what it means to be a survivalist; if everyone did it, it would be the norm and not the exception! Most likely you have the fire burning inside your belly or you would not be here on my blog reading this post. If you don’t have the survivor mentality yet, you are certainly better off than most of the people who will be grease stains on the pavement when the SHTF.

You are trying to make a difference in your life and I commend you for that. That being said, just because you have a head start doesn’t mean you should get all comfy and thinking you are the man (or woman)! You need to look at the world differently, kind of like Roddy Piper in that movie,put on the magical sunglasses and see who and what are your real foes in this nonsense called life. It takes a bit of a change, you don’t have to suddenly become a glass is half empty kind of person but a healthy dose of skepticism and working on your internal bullshit detector will certainly get you off to a good start.

The first thing you need to do is ask questions. NO, not of other people, ask yourself questions. When someone tells you something, ask yourself:
“Why is this person telling me this?”
“Does this person have something to gain by telling me this?”
“Do I even give a shit about what this person has to say?”

Once you learn to ask yourself questions, question the intentions of people and processes and become adept at weeding out the obvious bullshit, THEN you can start asking other people questions. Don’t take anything at face value either and for God’s sake don’t ever start with the:
“Oh, it can wait till tomorrow…” NONSENSE

That attitude will get you and your loved ones killed if you aren’t careful…tornados, burglars and jackbooted thugs never wait until tomorrow…trust me.

If you are serious about surviving anything you need to change your entire attitude and become a leader and more importantly a DOER. If you want and sit on the couch and wait until tomorrow, fine, I will most like be using your dust as compost in my post apocalyptic garden. Now unless you want to be part of a salad I eat in the future, I would suggest you get started on this little exercise sometime in the NEAR FUTURE.

So boys and girls lets summarize the lesson:
-SELF EVALUATION – write it down and BE HONEST!
-Think outside the box
-Healthy skepticism
-Question yourself
-Question others
-Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

If you start with these few simple steps you may be around when the dust settles. It has been proven time and time again the difference between those who survive and those that don’t is what is occupying the space between their ears. Those that have the mentality make it, those that don’t are forgotten (Darwin was good for something).

Yeah.... But being outside that proverbial box also makes you a target. Sheeple don't like strays. They ridicule them. Label them as kooks..... I don't care, it's much roomier out here! And I do indeed see things much clearer....

Good post! You touch on what I believe is the cornerstone of true intelligence, ie, the ability to analyze facts and suggestions without being limited by prior opinion, prejudice, or bias. We have all seen people who are really "smart" who are simply incapable of rationally considering an opinion or idea that varys from their own. In my opinion, this lack of intellectual flexibility is an extreme limitation in normal life and would be doubly so in a survival situation. The ability to look outside the box is a common attribute among survivors and successful people in general.